Barley Bread

I'm returning to a tin loaf today, made for a friend who finds my free form loaves scary.  She's been completely socialised into accepting the supermarket factory loaf of bread as the norm.  So much so that my lovely, brown, crunchy free form loaves make her sick!  So my challenge is to make her a loaf of bread that looks boringly 'normal', but tastes great.  Once again I turn to Elizabeth David.

Ingredients


450g strong white flour
120g barley meal (milled barley)
10g dried yeast
10g salt
340ml water
2 tbsp of buttermilk, cream or full cream milk

Mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly, then add the liquids and knead for 10 minutes.  Let it proof in warm place in an oiled bowl covered with cling wrap for 1-1.5 hours.  Punch the dough down, shape into a sausage and place into a 2 litre bread tin.  Preheat oven to 230 C and let the bread rise for 45 minutes until doubled in size.

Bake for 15 minutes at 230C
15 minutes at 200 C
Tip out of tin onto its side and bake for 15-20 minutes at 180 C.

Here is the result:

The dough rose amazingly well, better than any other mix I have tried.  I'll report back on the taste.  I've read that barley has a low glycaemic index and can also actually reduce blood sugar - who knows?  As I've made chocolate ice cream for dessert maybe that's a good thing.